Those of you who read this space regularly know that I don’t bake much. I am a little too free-form in my cooking to really nail any sort of baking project that requires precision. Fortunately, shortbread isn’t one of those sorts of recipes. Shortbread is easy.

What’s more shortbread, by definition, isn’t overly concerned with the gluten in wheat. Shortbread is so named because all that fat — typically butter — shortens the strands of gluten in the dough, leaving the “bread” crumbly. Given this, it occurred to me that a shortbread made with a lot of acorn flour, which is gluten-free, would work really well.

I am happy to report that it does. These little cakes (or big cookies, depending on your point of view), are not only fantastic, but they also hold up for a long time.

Why acorn flour? Well, I like the flavor. Acorn flour tastes a little like chestnuts, and gives the cookies a “warm” flavor that feels more rustic than a typical Scottish shortbread, which is normally made with white flour and white sugar. You could of course substitute other flours for acorns. I’d suggest, in order: chestnut flour, almond flour, barley, rye or whole wheat flour.

I also substitute maple sugar for some of the regular sugar. Maple sugar can be bought in good supermarkets or you can buy maple sugar online. A good substitute would be that brown turbinado sugar you see as “sugar in the raw” in coffee shops.

So while yes, these are great cookies to make at home and eat there, they are also a perfect thing to make for a hiking or hunting trip. Store them in a little tin and put them in your backpack — they’re way better than a typical granola bar.

Photo by Hank Shaw

Acorn Maple Shortbread Cookies

This is a great cookie to bring on hunting trips or when you’re hiking, because they will keep for days. You really get a sense of the acorn flavor here, and the maple and vanilla play a strong backup. Feel free to sub in some other flour for the acorns if you don’t have any.

It’s very important to work with icy cold dough here, or else the cookies will flatten. They’ll still taste great, but won’t be very shortbread-y.

Makes about a dozen large cookies.

Prep Time: 45 minutes, including chill time for the dough.

Cook Time: 25 minutes

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup maple sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

1 cup all-purpose or King Arthur’s “white whole wheat” flour

1 cup acorn flour

__________

Put the butter in a large bowl and add the sugars. Use a fork or spoon to mix them together until well combined. Add the vanilla extract.

In another bowl, mix the salt and the flours with a whisk until combined. Pour the flour mixture into the bowl with the butter and sugar and mix well with the fork or spoon. The dough will come together quickly, but will be sticky. Don’t overwork it, but be sure you don’t have hidden blobs of butter in your dough.

Shape the dough into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and set in the freezer about 1 hour, and up to overnight in the fridge.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Flatten the disk of dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into cookies. I used a 2-inch cutter, but any sort of cutter would do. An acorn-shaped one would be cute. Keep soing this, reshaping the dough, until you’ve used it all.

Arrange the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 23 to 26 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies just begin to brown.

19 responses to “Acorn Maple Shortbread Cookies”

oh my this sounds absolutely perfect for my first ever batch of home made acorn flour, which btw is still losing the tannins in the fridge (day 2) another recipe I found here only yesterday!
I do have a question for you: can I use the flour once it’s lost the tannins by the end of the week, as is, i.e. without drying or does it have to be dried first?

I have ALL THE INGREDIENTS for those. OMG. I will be making them this weekend. Adding black walnuts: good idea/bad idea?

I’m assuming you fully dry your flour when you make it? I always have, but my roommate stores it still wet and freezes it. Are there merits to one way or the other? My decision has always been about limited freezer space rather than quality.

I’m not sure if acorns contain as much oil as almonds,
but my guess is that these shortbread cookies would be
great with either hazelnut or almond meal.
You know I’ll be doing a test batch for the holidays.

[…] hands-on approach to obtaining ingredients and cooking. He’s also a baker. Case in point: these acorn maple shortbread cookies. (Hank’s recipe for acorn flour is here. Another nut flour, available in bulk, would probably be […]

Hi Hank,
I tried biscuit recipe. Mine turned into big buttery mess in oven. Didn’t look at all like yours. I substituted brown sugar for maple,
but I don’t think that should make such a difference. Came out like a big flat cookie covering entire pan. My daughter still liked it, but I would like to taste the acorn more after all the work of making the flour. Ground is covered now in snow, but I guess we’ll have to gather and try again next year.

Hi Hank, I’ve really enjoyed reading through your acorn processing experiences and this year is my first time working on my own. I’ve tried two different batches of the shortbread cookies and had the same problem as Eric Shoefer above. My cookies melted very flat in the oven, almost completely covering the pan. They are quite tasty, but more like a buttery crispy wafer than a cookie. It is almost as if the proportion of butter is too high, and just melts in the oven even though I refrigerated the dough. I tried one batch with an all-purpose gluten free flour and the second batch with white wheat flour. Any thoughts on how to achieve a more voluminous acorn shortbread cookie? I’ll definitely be experimenting a bit more on my own. Thank you!

Made these yesterday from a bucket of acorns that my kids gathered. They turned out great! The acorns i had were three or four different varieties so there was quite a bit of leaching to do. I froze them first, shelled them, and then soaked the whole in a bucket for a couple of days, changing the water a couple of times a day. Huge amounts of tannin came out of them. I then pureed them with some water into a thick bater like consistency and added more water to float off more tannin. I used the flour water but added little more flour (probably 60:40). I used a stoneground whole flour which always soaks up more moisture anyway. It’s a bit of effort but they are very good biscuits. Friends and family have been astounded. My six year old son is especially happy that his foraging has been put to good use.

Going to try your acorn cake next with the remaining flour.

Great website! Definitely my favourite hunting/gathering site. Keep up the great work!